Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Humanitarian laws make no distinction on grounds of
religion and ethnicity. Nor do they make any distinction between legal and
illegal residents. Even a dangerous criminal, including terrorist suspects, are
entitled to food and medical assistance when they are in the custody of the
police.

2. Under international laws, every State has a
right to prevent illegal migration through legitimate means. It can fence the
border, deploy the army and empower the army to shoot at individuals seeking to
cross the border illegally. If despite these measures some people manage to
cross the border illegally, the State has a right to arrest and deport them in
accordance with the due process of the law.

3. However, so long as those illegals are in our
territory, the State cannot escape the responsibility for protecting them from
acts of violence and extending to them food and medical assistance under the
international humanitarian laws.

4.There are disturbing reports of the
non-observance of humanitarian obligations not only by the Governments of
Myanmar and Bangladesh, but also by the Government of Assam in India in respect
of the Muslims, perceived as illegal entrants, who have been affected by recent
incidents of anti-Muslim violence in this area.

5.The Rohingya Muslims affected by the recent
clashes betweenthe Buddhists and the Rohingya
Muslims in the Rakhine State of Myanmar have been complaining that they have
been denied humanitarian assistance by the Myanmar Government and Army on the
ground that they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Some Western Governments
such as that of France have urged the Myanmar Government to attend to the
humanitarian plight of the Rohingyas.

6. The Bangladesh Government has not only refused
to extend any humanitarian assistance to new entrants fleeing the violence in
the Rakhine State, but has even ordered the suspension of humanitarian
assistance to Rohingyas who had crossed over in the 1990s and are living in
camps as registered refugees. Since the last week of July, it has ordered two
French and one British humanitarian organisations to suspend the supply of
humanitarian assistance to past entrants from Myanmar due to a fear that this
couldinduce more Rohingyas to re-enter
Bangladesh from Myanmar. The US Government and the UN High Commission for
Refugees, Geneva, have expressed concern over this and urged the Bangladesh
Government to reverse the suspension.

7. The recent incidents of violence in the
Kokrajhar and adjoining Bodo areas of Assam have led to a large number of Muslim
victims of the incidents taking shelter in relief camps set up by the
authorities. There is a disturbing impression that the local authorities are
seeking to make a distinction between Muslim victims who are our citizens and
victims who are illegals who had come to Indian territory from Bangladesh. If
true, such a distinction will be unwise, counterproductive and unsustainable
under international humanitarian laws.

8. India has always had an exemplary record in
observing humanitarian laws and in meeting humanitarian obligations. We have
legitimate fears regarding possible threats to our national security and
integrity due to the presence of a large number of Bangladeshi illegals in our
territory. We have every right to deal with them in accordance with the law.
Till we are able to do so, we should not derogate from our humanitarian
obligations to those in our territory by making an unsustainable distinction in
the distribution of humanitarian relief.

9. Impressions among the Muslim victims of violence
in this region that the States and Governments concerned have been following a
policy of discrimination against the Muslim victims in the matter of
humanitarian relief could drive some of them into the hands of the Islamic
fundamentalist and other extremist organisations active in the affected areas.(
9-8-12)

Fresh clashes between Arakanese Buddhists and
Rohingya Muslimswere reported on August
6,2012, from the Kyauktaw township in the Rakhine State of Myanmar bordering
Bangladesh. The violence was triggered off byclaims of the alleged recovery of
some guns from a boat belonging to some Rohingyas by Arakanese Buddhists
belonging to the village Ywar Nyar.

2. The Buddhists undertook searches for guns
suspected to have been smuggled in by the Rohingyas following an incident in
which some Rohingyas were accused by the Buddhists of burning down a
Buddhist-owned rice factory in the Taung Pauk village.

3. The violence led to the burning down of houses
belonging to both the communities in Apauk Wa, Shwe Haling, Gut Pi Taung and Ywar
Nyar villages. Earlier, the situation in the Kyauktaw area started getting
serious on August 2, 2012, the full moon day of Buddhist Lent, when a group of
Rohingyas allegedly destroyed an Arakanese Buddhist-owned bus station.

4.The 88 Generation Students Group
sent a team to the Rakhine State to make an on the spot study of the situation.
On its return to Yangon, Ko Ko Gyi, its leader, said he would be prepared to
support the call of the UN Special Rapporteur For Myanmar for a Truth
Commission to find out the truth provided it enquired into the allegations made
by the Buddhists as well as the Rohingya Muslims and its enquiry covered not
only allegations of violations of the human rights of the two communities, but
also Myanmar’s concerns over the impact of the Rohingya problem on Myanmar’s
national security.

5.Ko Ko Gyi said: “We found during our trip to
Arakan State that local Arakanese aid groups put up signboards saying
‘Unwelcome UN and NGOs Aid’ in front of their refugee camps. This will continue
to happen if [the UN] treats local people unequally.”

6.In a statement issued in Paris on August 6,French
Deputy Foreign Minister Vincent Floreani called on Myanmar to find a peaceful
solution to the conflict in the Rakhine
State. He said: “We call on the Burmese authorities to protect all civilian
populations, without discrimination, and to investigate possible abuses.” Meanwhile, there were reports that Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will travel to Myanmar on August 9 to meet President
Thein Sein and discuss how to provide humanitarian aid to the displaced.

7.Prominent members of the Buddhist
community in the Rakhine State have expressed their unhappiness over what they
allege as the pressure being exercised by Catholic and other Christian
organisations on Western Governments to exercise pressure on the Myanmar
Government to show a more sympathetic and accommodating attitude to the
Rohingya Muslims.

8.The United States has endorsed an appeal of the
UN High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR),Geneva, urging the Bangladesh
Government to reverse its order asking two French and one British humanitarian
relief organisation to stop providing relief to any fresh group of Rohingyas
illegally crossing over into Bangladesh. The Bangladesh’s contention is that
these organisations had been permitted to provide relief to Rohingyas who had
crossed over in the past and who are registered as refugees.

9.The three organisations ordered to stop the
distribution of humanitarian relief are France’s Doctors Without Borders and Action Against Hunger and the UK’s Muslim Aid,
all of which had set up humanitarian relief distribution centres in Cox’s Bazar, near the border with Myanmar.

10.The Bangladesh authorities have said their country is already struggling to
cope with the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic
violence in the 1990s and are living in camps near Cox’s Bazar. They say the
NGOs are undermining the government’s efforts to deter more refugees from
entering the country.

11.In a statement issued on August 7, the US State
Department said it was “deeply concerned” over the Bangladesh ban. The same
day, the UNHCR appealed to Bangladesh “to ensure that NGO assistance continues
to be provided to unregistered people from Myanmar’s Rakhine state. If the
order is implemented, it will have a serious humanitarian impact on some 40,000
unregistered people who had fled Myanmar in recent years and settled in the
Leda and Kutupalong makeshift sites.”

12. Sentu Mian, an official of the NGO Affairs
Bureau of the Bangladesh Government, said the aid provided by these three
organisations to Rohingyas had served to encourage an influx of refugees from
the latest clashes between the Muslims
and the Buddhists. He added: “We found that they [the NGOs] have offered
rations and financial support to unregistered Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. These
activities work against the interests of Bangladesh and so we decided to impose
a ban on them.”

13.The Dhaka Police are reported to have arrested nine Rohingyas who had been brought in by agents. Monirul
Islam of the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told the local
media that an investigation was underway regarding hundreds of stolen
passports, in a case believed to have “a Rohingya link.”

14.In the meanwhile, the local media in the Rakhine
State has alleged that Radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakr Bashir, who is
currently imprisoned for supporting a jihadi training camp in Aceh, northern
Sumatra, has demanded that the Myanmar Government stop harming Muslims or face the anger
of his fighters. While the Muslim Governments of the region have been cautious
in their statements on the situation in the Rakhine State, the Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan and the Jemaah Islamiya of Indonesia have reportedly expressed their
solidarity with the Rohingyas. (8-8-12)

( Based on observations made by me at the inaugural
session of a seminar on Maritime Security and Challenges in the Indian Ocean
Region jointly organised on August 8,2012, bythe Stella Maris College, Chennai, and the Centre for Asia Studies,
Chennai, at the Stella Maris College)

Maritime security, which was a two-dimensional
concept before 2000 focussing essentially on likely threats and challenges from
State actors and pirates, has now become a three dimensional concept as a
result of the increasing threats of maritime terrorism with a global or
trans-national reach.

2.Till 2000, the concept was seen largely through the prism of possible
confrontations and conflicts between the competing interests of State actors in
the region suchas between India and
Pakistan orbetween India and China
orbetween the US and China.

3.The attack by an explosive-laden boat of Al Qaeda
against US naval ship USS Cole in Aden in October,2000, and the unsuccessful
attempt by Al Qaeda to blow up and sink a French oil tanker Limburg in the same
area in October,2002, expanded the scope of the concept to cover likely future
threats to maritime trade and navigation and to sensitive coastal
establishments from non-State actors with the motivation and capability for
attacking targets on or from the seas.

4. The interrogation of Al Qaeda suspects arrested
during the investigation of the attacks on USS Cole and Limburg revealed the
plans of Al Qaeda to target maritime choke points like the Straits of Gibraltar
and Hormuz and the Malacca Straits by blowing up sea-borne vessels laden with
explosives and container ships to block the choke points.

5. As a result, maritime counter-terrorism became
an important component of maritime security. Counter-piracy was an important
component of maritime security even before 2000 due to the activities of
pirates based in the ASEAN countries in the Malacca Straits, but the threat was
limited in scope due to the fact that the pirates operating in the South-East
Asian region, despite being well-equipped in modern means of communications,
had alimited capability for operating
in high seas far from the Malacca Straits.

6. The advent of the Somali pirates in the
post-2005 years totally changed the complexion of piracy and the complexity of
counter-piracy operations. The Somali pirates, though not as well equipped as
the pirates of South-East Asia in modern means of communication, demonstrated a
capability for operating in high seas far away from their bases in Somalia
through the technique of using small boats launched from mother ships.
Consequently, the techniques of counter-piracy called for a capability to deal
with sea-borne non-State actors off the coast as well as in high seas.

7. The degradation of the capabilities of Al Qaeda
in recent years as a result of the relentless campaign of attrition waged by
the US against it and the strengthening of maritime security measures relating
to ports and container traffic have prevented the major threats to maritime
security from Al Qaeda apprehended in
the wake of the attacks on USS Cole and Limburg from materialising.

8.However, new threats have arisen from attempts of
other terrorist organisations to copy-cat Al Qaeda’s acquisition of a
capability for maritime terrorism. The sea-borne attack by the Lashkar-e-Toiba
on targets in Mumbai from November 26 to 29,2008, showed that the capability
for maritime terrorism is no longer confined to Al Qaeda alone. Moreover, the
role of the State of Pakistan in helping the LET to carry out a
devastatingsea-borne terrorist attack
on targets in Mumbai underlined the new threats from State-sponsored maritime
terrorism.

9.The conventional naval techniques and
capabilities developed over the years to protect ourselves against threats from
State actors and their navies would no longer be sufficient to protect
ourselves against maritime threats from non-state actors, whether it be
terrorists or pirates, and their State-sponsors. Naval doctrines now have to
contend with threats from State as well as non-State maritime actors.

10. Dealing with threats from non-State actors, who
pose a threat to the maritime security of many nations, calls for techniques
based on mutual assistance and intelligence sharing among the navies of the
affected countries. Despite political differences and competing economic
interests among the State actors, they find it necessary to engage and
co-operate with each other to face and neutralise threats from the non-State
actors.

11. Despitethe continuing border dispute and despite suspicions and apprehensions
over the implications to India of China’s strategic co-operation with Pakistan and the implications to China of India’s
strategic co-operation with Vietnam, the Indian and Chinese navies have found
ways of co-operating with each other in dealing with the Somali pirates. There
is a triangular co-operation mechanism involving the Navies of India, China and
Japan and there is a talk of the South Korean Navy being brought into this
co-operation mechanism. The serious differences between China and Japan on the
question of sovereignty over the East China Sea islands have not come in the
way of ideas towards a counter-piracy strategy based on mutual assistance and
intelligence sharing.

12.A reference to the coming into shape of a
trilateral co-operation mechanism was made by Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, the
retiring chief of the Indian Navy, in his final briefing of the Indian media at
New Delhi on August 7,2012. According to “The Hindu” of August 8,2012, he said:
“ Our anti-piracy operations have thus far been co-ordinated trilaterally with
the Chinese and Japanese and, in the near future, this initiative could include
the South Korean Navy.”

13.Engagement and co-operation against maritime
terrorism has not made the same progress as co-operation against the Somali
pirates because of the role of Pakistan in sponsoring organisations such as the
LET, which pose a threat to our maritime security. Unless and until Pakistan
gives up its policy of using terrorism as a weapon against India, the scope for
co-operation between the Indian and Chinese Navies against Pakistani terrorist
organisations taking to sea-borne terrorism will remain limited. There is,
however, scope for co-operation between the Navies of India and China against
globalterrorist organisations such as
Al Qaeda when they operate on or from the seas.

14.Engagement and co-operation against non-State
actorsshould not be allowed to weaken
our national will and determination to assert our national core interests
against State actors. One has to see the activism of the Chinese and US Navies in
the South China Sea area in this context. The US has not allowed its developing
economic and other cooperation with China to come in the way of the assertion
of its national interests in the Pacific and East and South China Seas. Similarly,
China has not allowed its co-operation with the ASEAN countries in various
fields to come in the way of an assertion of its claims of sovereignty over the
South China Sea islands.

15. Thus, one finds the evolution of a new naval
doctrine in different countries of the region based on the twin pillars of
engagement and co-operation to the extent possible against threats from
non-State actors and assertion of national interests against State actors
without allowing the importance of engagement and co-operation against
non-State actors weaken the national will and determination to assert national interests
against State actors endangering such interests.

16.Our naval doctrine to deal with the three
dimensions of maritime security should provide for capabilities that would
enable us to deal effectively with threats from non-State actors, by our acting
either alone or in co-operation with other navies, and threats from State
actors to our national interests. While discussing Maritime Threats and
Challenges, one has to clearly identify likely threats from State as well as
non-State actors and the techniques required for dealingwith them. The ability of our Navy to deal
with the three-dimensional threat to our maritime security will depend on the back-up
support from our intelligence agencies.

17. There is a need for not only a new and smart
naval doctrine to deal with the three components of maritime security, butalsofor a new and smart intelligence doctrine to enable the R&AW , the
Directorate-General of Naval Intelligence and the Defence Intelligence Agency
(DIA) provide effective back-up support to the Navy and the Coast Guard.

18. Unfortunately, the R&AW continues to be
largely a land-struck intelligence agency using traditional police methods of
collecting, analysing and assessing intelligence. It does not have an adequate
understanding of the sea and sea-borne threats and does not have the capability
for collecting intelligence about them. The importance of imparting a sea-borne
orientation to the R&AW has not received much attention. This state of
affairs needs to be corrected without further loss of time.

19. We have had many Task Forces to look into our
capabilities for dealing with threats to our national security---whether such
threats be from the land, the seas or the air. In view of the rapidly changing
dimensions of the threats to maritime security, the time has come for a separate Task Force to
deal exclusively with threats to our maritime security. It should identify the
doctrinal, strategic and tactical deficiencies relating to our maritime
capabilities and recommend measures to remove those deficiencies. (8-8-12)